Welcome Heather Heiland, Health Services Director

The Foulkeways community would like to welcome our new Health Services Director, Heather Heiland.

Foulkeways at Gwynedd had launched a national search for a health services director who would help maintain its national reputation as the premier life care community.

Heather is excited to bring twenty years of management experience in senior living.  After an extensive search, the residents and board selection committee knew she was the right fit for our community.  Her credentials and extensive experience in the life-care field more than qualified her. But she had to know that our values matched too.

After an exhaustive interview process, involving meetings with managers, residents, and staff, that may have been daunting for some candidates “was very comfortable for me,” she said recently.
“I was looking for my forever place. The last interview was five hours. I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me to make sure it was the right fit.” Her years in a similar position at another life-care community had prepared her for the day-to-day work of patient care and, particularly the preventative and fitness routines that distinguish the best life-care communities.

“Obviously, continuing the level of excellence in health care here is a priority,” she said.  “But, especially at a place like Foulkeways, prevention and providing services that keep folks from taking a turn are key.  We certainly have the facilities here to care for them if needed.  But the focus here is on healthful eating and education on health maintenance and stress management.”

Her training and experience notwithstanding, much of what qualifies Heather Heiland for the position is an attitude that she developed as a young girl.

“I was very fortunate to spend a lot of my time with my grandparents in a small town called Ravens Run. I was around mostly older folks.  But I didn’t see them as elderly. They had full lives and they were amazing mentors. It was like having 30 grandparents.

“The residents are part of everything that happens here too. They’re always looking to improve not only the quality of their lives but the lives of the entire Foulkeways community and beyond.  I like that.”

Heather takes the reigns with the retirement of Mary Knapp who after fifteen years of service, retired on 6/24/2023.